'I was freaking out,' says delivery man held for ransom after getting into Brooklyn fender bender

Francisco Jimenez and Rondell Halley arrested in upper west side kidnapping.

The deliveryman kidnapped at gunpoint after a Brooklyn fender-bender knew one thing for sure: He wasn’t taking a bullet over a jar of strained peaches.

The 32-year-old driver, after surviving a three-hour hostage ordeal, told the Daily News how quickly things went sideways during his amateurish abduction on a Bushwick street. One minute he was delivering baby food and other kids’ products, and the next there was a man pointing a weapon at him.

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“I’m not going to fight you if you have a gun,” the victim told The News. “I’m not trying to get shot over some diapers.”

The driver, who spoke to The News on condition of anonymity, said the whole bizarre episode began Monday afternoon when he barely brushed a parked Honda CR-V with the bumper of his white van while trying to slip into an adjoining space.

“I just grazed it,” he recounted. “I didn’t even dent it.”

Suspects Francisco Jimenez and Rondell Halley appeared suddenly, claiming they owned the vehicle and demanding $40. When the driver told the pair that he had no cash, they pulled a gun on him and forced him to call his boss.

Cops said the kidnappers demanded a mere $700 cash to ensure the safe return of the driver and the van. When they called the hostage’s boss with their demand, he contacted the NYPD — and the suspects were nabbed on the Upper West Side after driving over and taking $280 as their cash payout, cops said.

“Inside, I was freaking out,” the driver said of his bizarre ordeal. “But outside, no. I don’t show emotions like that. What am I going to do? I’m not trying to test those guys.”

Jimenez, 24, and Halley, 33, were arraigned Wednesday in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of kidnapping, drug possession and weapons possession, and a judge set bail for each of them at $500,000.

Francisco Jimenez, 24, and Rondell Halley, were arrested for allegedly kidnapping and extorting a deliveryman. (Jesse Ward for New York Daily News)

The deliveryman — a former paralegal with the Bronx District Attorney’s office — quickly realized the car belonged to neither of the suspects, who were just trying to turn a quick buck off the dinged vehicle.

“They were just trying to strong-arm me from the street, extort me,” the driver said. “It didn’t seem like they even knew whose car that was … It was all over nothing. If I had the money, I would have given it to them.”

The driver, despite emerging unscathed from the dicey situation, said he was likely going to seek new employment.

“I have to find another job,” he said. “I’m probably not going to go back.”